Litvinenko Widow Accuses Russia

Litvinenko Widow Accuses Russia

news.sky.com

The widow of Alexander Litvinenko is taking legal action accusing Russia of being involved in the murder of her husband one year ago.

Lawyers for Marina Litvinenko say they have evidence that the poison which killed the dissident in London could only have come from a plant owned by the Russian Federation.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
news.bbc.co.uk

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Russian Spy Alexander Litvinenko Dies
Putin does it again!!! (poisoned spy)

There has been a press conference this morning and the lawyer stated that the Polonium-210 "could only have come from a plant owned by the Russian Federation" and that the main suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, has never been interviewed by the Russian authorities.

Moves to get Russia to let us talk to Mr. Lugovoi continue and a complaint has been lodged with the European Court of Human Rights against the Russian Federation.

news.sky.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

What if in few weeks or months the news will say that she was murdered or perhaps label her death as "suicide"?

The world is scary we live in.

[edit on 23-11-2007 by TheoOne]

A little bit more on where it is believed the Polonium-210 came from -

www.guardian.co.uk...

Solicitor Louise Christian said a US nuclear expert had traced the radioactive isotope used to poison Mr Litvinenko to the Avangard plant in Russia.

She said the expert believed that it was "almost certain" the Russian state was behind the poisoning because the substance was kept in such high-security conditions.

And a little bit about Avangard. Based in Sarov it was the first Soviet plant to manufacture nuclear weapons on "an industrial scale" but that stopped earlier this decade in favour of commerical enterprises such as medical research and other non-weaponised research. - www.nnsa.doe.gov...%2Fdocs%2Fnewsreleases%2F2001%2F2001-09-27-Closure_of_Russian_Nuclear_Plant.pdf&images=yes (pdf)

And this is where 97% of Polonium-210 comes from

www.sptimes.ru...

Ninety-seven percent of the legal production of one of the world’s rarest industrial products — the intensely radioactive isotope polonium-210 — takes place at a closely guarded nuclear reactor near the Volga River, 700 kilometers southeast of Moscow.

In an average year, about 85 grams of the substance is made at the Avangard facility, a former nuclear weapons plant, and then sold under strict controls to Russian and foreign companies that prize it for its abilities to reduce static electricity.

The Avangard plant operates under close government scrutiny. Officials said four organizations were licensed to handle the material made there: the chemistry faculty of Moscow State University; the Federal Nuclear Center in Samara, also on the Volga; Tenex, the state-controlled uranium supplier; and one private company, Nuclon, which uses it for medical devices and transports isotopes to customers.

This article also states that most of the 15+ known incidents of stealing Polonium-210 happened in the USA. So saying it comes from the Avangard plant isn't saying a whole lot by itself if 97% of the legally owned stuff comes from there anyway.

But who are these organisations and do they have any ties to either Mr. Litvinenko, Mr. Lugovoi or the Russian Government? The Government itself does have a constant eye on the place by the sounds of it. If I find the time/energy I may look into them, and a deeper look at the Avangard plant, in the near future.